Faux Outrage

In a way, leftists/liberals are very much like peacocks. They swish their bright feathers to attract others.

Check this out.

In the era of identity politics and feelings instead of sensible action, nothing is more attention-getting than false outrage.

The warmth of feeling superior and indignant while pontificating about things one knows not fuels the virtue-signalling masses for future outrages, tantrums and periods of superiority.

It beats critical thinking, solid action or just getting on with things.


Case in point: last night's shooting at a mosque in Quebec City.

Dreadful stuff.


Normally, people who hold that Western civilisation is the civilisation are appalled at such things because shooting people is just not the done thing unless one is an inveterate criminal or terrorist.

That nasty little word people are loathe to utter.

That is why the Fort Hood shootings were "workplace violence" and the club massacre in Florida is based on anything but Islamist terrorism.

And these are drops in the bucket in terms of Islamist violence. One could go on all day about the situation in Europe.

But I digress slightly...


Trudeau, thinking that he needs to wear his big-boy pants now, pretended to be leader and gave this statement:

"To the more than 1 million Canadians who profess the Muslim faith, I want to say directly: we are with you; 36 million hearts are breaking with yours," Trudeau said.

Speak for yourself, Mr. China-is-Awesome/Honour-Killings-Aren't-Barbaric/Parkas-for-Yazidi-Kids-Who-Will-Never-Make-It-to-Canada/Saving-Iraqi-Christians-Is-Disgusting/The-Chinese-Own-Me/Aga-Khan-Is-the-New-AdScam/I-Troll-Mosques-For-Votes.

Hell, these shootings could not have come at a better time. They are so distracting, not just PM Hair-Boy but for everyone whose favourite whipping boy can blamed for practically anything.


I don't recall the left's outrage when Muslims killed their co-religionists in those far away countries in which battles are not supposed to be fought.

Indeed, when a civil shop-owner is murdered, where is the outrage?

When Bangladeshi atheists find themselves hacked to death, are there angry speeches at award shows?

There is plenty of venom for Israel but little sympathy for the Jews there.

When Coptic Christians attend midnight Mass and then get killed for it, how many people take to the streets?

The best anyone could do for kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls was a hashtag.

A hashtag.

Where is the selective outrage for any of the above? How badly can you feel for people you didn't know existed until Trump instituted a ban? What about the culture of these "innocents" makes sense to a post-modern resident of a civilisation that allowed him or her the sloth to feel nothing at all unless told to?


While everyone still wallows in their feelings and this shooting goes so far down the memory hole that even the culprits forget, what will the preening peacocks feel then?

For A Monday

The story so far...


Last night, armed gunmen (reported as two or three at the time) broke into a mosque known for its tangential links to the Muslim Brotherhood, shouted "Allahu ackbar!" and killed six people with what was believed to be an AK-47.

A manhunt ensued.

One man, armed, called the police and turned himself in.

The suspects were later identified as Alexandre Bissonnette and Mohamed El Khadir. 

Only Alexandre Bissonnette is being charged.

I will say again: witnesses have stated that two hooded gunmen -

Worshippers were at Quebec City's mosque for the evening prayers when witnesses say two gunmen dressed in black and wearing ski masks walked into the mosque and started shooting.

- burst into a Quebec City mosque with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood - 

The mosque in  the Quebec City shooting was originally formed by Muslim Student Association according to its own history.   The Muslim Student Association was founded by adherents of the Muslim Brotherhood.  The mosque donated money on a yearly basis (2001 to 2010) to the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy (IRFAN).  IRFAN, according to the Canada Revenue Agency, was set up to skirt Canadian law and send millions of dollars to HAMAS.  The parent organization of HAMAS is the Muslim Brotherhood according to Article Two of the HAMAS charter.  IRFAN is now listed as a terrorism entity.

- and shot six people.

One man was armed and caught by the police:

One of two suspected gunmen involved in a mass shooting that left six people dead and another 19 wounded at a Quebec City mosque called 911 indicating he wanted to work with authorities, police said Monday. 

Quebec City police Insp. Denis Turcotte said the man waited for officers to arrest him not long after the shooting at the Centre Culturel Islamique de Quebec in Quebec City's Ste-Foy neighbourhood. 

Quebec provincial police say following their investigation, only one of the two people arrested in connection with a deadly shooting at a mosque in Quebec City is considered a suspect. 

Police say in a tweet that the second person is considered a witness, but they did not name him. Police said earlier they had arrested two suspects. 

"He was armed and spoke to us about his acts,'' said Turcotte. 

"He seemed to want to co-operate....The suspect said he was waiting for the police to arrive.'' 

The suspects were named as Alexandre Bissonnette and Mohamed El Khadir.

Only Alexandre Bissonnette is being charged.

Does something stink?

You bet it does.




Moving on....




Trump does not have to say that he told one so but he could:

U.S. President Donald Trump called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the aftermath of the Quebec City mosque attack on Monday, pledging to support Canadian police “in any way necessary,” the White House said. 

Trump reportedly gave condolences for the attack on Sunday night, which killed at least six at the Centre culturel islamique de Quebec. 

After the call, White House press secretary Sean Spicer suggested the attack further justified Trump’s approach to national security. 

“This is another senseless act of violence that cannot be tolerated,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said during his daily press briefing on Monday. “It’s a terrible reminder of why we must remain vigilant and why the president is taking steps to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to our nation’s safety and security.”

(Sidebar: the article goes on with assorted empty platitudes that can be explored at a later date.)


Also:

The Germans criticized it. The British voiced their discomfort. The French, the Canadians and even some Republican senators in Washington stood in open opposition.

But in Cairo and Riyadh, in the heart of the Muslim world, President Donald Trump’s decision to bar millions of refugees and citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from the United States was met with a conspicuous silence.

Yes, about that:

They've risked their lives to escape war in Syria. Most of Europe has struggled to deal with their masses, and has at least tried to answer a humanitarian call of a magnitude not seen since World War II. 

But no Syrian refugees have been resettled in Persian Gulf nations like Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, countries with significant financial and political interest in Syria. ...

Legally, they're not obligated to help. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and other Gulf states are among the few nations in the world that have not signed a 1951 U.N. treaty on refugees. That's a key legal document that defines what a refugee is and spells out their rights and states' legal obligations. But since Gulf states haven't signed the treaty, any victim of war would need to meet the same standards as anyone else to obtain a visa.

That's real Muslim brotherhood!




Private Citizen Barack Obama is heartened that people don't like Trump:

President Obama is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country. In his final official speech as President, he spoke about the important role of citizen and how all Americans have a responsibility to be the guardians of our democracy — not just during an election but every day.

It's time to ask Private Citizen Barack Obama where he was when Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens was being killed in Benghazi.




Trump had said troubling things regarding the situation on the Korean Peninsula prior to his election. Now, it seems he has become more lucid about the matter:

U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean Acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn agreed to take steps to strengthen joint defense capabilities to defend against North Korea's nuclear threat, the White House said on Sunday after a telephone call between the two leaders.


"President Trump reiterated our ironclad commitment to defend (South Korea), including through the provision of extended deterrence, using the full range of military capabilities," the White House said in a statement.

It also said Trump and Hwang discussed the upcoming visit by the new U.S. defense secretary to Japan and South Korea, where shared concerns about North Korea will top the agenda.

 

Also:

Special prosecutors looking into the influence-peddling allegations pivoting on President Park Geun-hye now face a pair of critical challenges: to summon Park for face-to-face questioning and to search the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae for evidence.

The direct inquiry into the president is deemed an indispensable step to prove her liability in the corruption scandal, but is also an obstacle for investigators who are increasingly running out of time.

Millions will pay taxes on private health insurance, on top of other things:

The Conference Board study for the CDA suggests someone earning $45,000 in full-time employment in Ontario, with family coverage, would pay an extra $1,167 in tax. Those earning $60,000 in that province would pay an additional $1,043, while workers earning $90,000 would pay $1,277 more. Those numbers are reasonably consistent across the country, except (it almost goes without saying) in Quebec, where those earning $90,000 would pay a combined $1,729. Obviously, if two wage-earners in the same family have coverage, that amount will double.

Just because:

(Merci)

Sunday Post

The freak-out deconstructed:

The ban is in place while the Department of Homeland Security determines the “information needed from any country to adjudicate any visa, admission, or other benefit under the INA (adjudications) in order to determine that the individual seeking the benefit is who the individual claims to be and is not a security or public-safety threat.” It could, however, be extended or expanded depending on whether countries are capable of providing the requested information. 

The ban, however, contains an important exception: “Secretaries of State and Homeland Security may, on a case-by-case basis, and when in the national interest, issue visas or other immigration benefits to nationals of countries for which visas and benefits are otherwise blocked.” In other words, the secretaries can make exceptions — a provision that would, one hopes, fully allow interpreters and other proven allies to enter the U.S. during the 90-day period.

Read the whole thing.

Also: oh, heavens to Betsy! 

According to the draft copy of Trump's executive order, the countries whose citizens are barred entirely from entering the United States is based on a bill that Obama signed into law in December 2015.

In case one was still concerned:

The suspect - the third suicide bomber at the Stade de France according to French police - entered the Greek island of Leros on 3 October.

He was with Ahmad al-Mohammed, a fellow Stade de France attacker. 

Islamic State militants killed 130 people in Paris on 13 November.

French police have not named the man in the latest appeal for information.

But the BBC's Ed Thomas has matched the image released by French police with a photo on the arrival papers at Leros.

Our correspondent says the two men bought ferry tickets to leave Leros to continue their journey through Europe with Syrian refugees. 

**

A Syrian refugee arrested in Germany Monday was ready to strike imminently with attacks similar to those in Brussels and Paris, and the suspect was probably inspired by the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), investigators said.

Jaber Albakr, 22, arrived in Germany in February last year during a migrant influx into the country and was granted temporary asylum in June 2015. Officials said he had not previously aroused suspicion.

**

Approximately 850 people from the UK have travelled to support or fight for jihadist organisations in Syria and Iraq, say the British authorities. About half have since returned to the UK.  

Canadian tech firms have issued a letter to Ottawa pleading for temporary residency for migrants displaced by the recent American immigration ban:

A group of Canadian technology company founders, executives and investors on Sunday called in a letter for Ottawa to immediately give temporary residency to those displaced by a U.S. order banning the entry of people from seven Muslim-majority countries.


The open letter said U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order, which temporarily bars travelers from Syria and six other countries and also puts a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States, had already "impacted several in our community."

"Canadian tech companies understand the power of inclusion and diversity of thought, and that talent and skill know no borders," said the letter, signed by more than 200 industry players.

"Many Canadian tech entrepreneurs are immigrants, are the children of immigrants, employ and have been employed by immigrants."

Signatories included John Ruffolo, head of the venture arm of one of Canada’s biggest pension funds, and Tobias Lutke, chief executive officer of e-commerce software company Shopify, which went public in 2015 and is valued at around $4.6 billion.

The Canadian government has not said what, if any, tangible action it could take, but in tweets on Saturday Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada welcomed those fleeing war and persecution and posted an archived picture of him greeting Syrian refugees arriving in Toronto in 2015.

 

Yes, about that:

Dr. Ahmad Chaker, with the Syrian Canadian Council, said language is an issue many refugees face when trying to find jobs. Transportation is another problem.

"The other challenge is where they live and the workplace," he told CBC News. "They don't have driving licenses. They don't have cars."  ...

In late January 2016, Branka Kovacevic, owner of Royal Feed Screws in Oldcastle, Ont. told CBC News she had job openings for refugees. Since then, she has not hired any newcomers because no organization has information about their skill levels.

"No one has any information," she said. "Which profile they have, do they have education in machining...any information about their education and skills. I didn't find anyone who has that information."

**
 

Data obtained by The Canadian Press shows that government-assisted refugees have more children, lower language skills and lower education levels compared with those being resettled by private groups.

“Overall, the needs of this population are higher than originally expected,” says the six-page brief from the Immigration Department.

The national unemployment rate in December was 6.9%.




Of course he is a professor. Of course he is:

An American-born biology professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland intends to officially become a Canadian citizen after living in the country for three decades, calling himself a “political refugee” of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Steve Carr, a California native whose mother hails from Stratford, Ont., says he has applied for Canadian citizenship as “insurance” against Trump’s hardline immigration policy.

The longtime permanent resident of Canada has flirted with becoming a naturalized citizen since moving to Newfoundland for a teaching gig in 1987, but as a self-proclaimed American patriot, says he couldn’t bring himself to swear an Oath of Allegiance to the Queen.

He says he watched in disbelief when the voting returns came in last November, feeling “sick to (his) stomach” as it became clear Trump had won the presidential race.

Carr says Trump’s rhetoric divides the American public into “us” and “them” — his supporters and everyone else — and as a Buddhist scientist with liberal leanings, he falls squarely in the latter camp.

He says he’s concerned about being flagged by U.S. customs and immigration officials for having twice visited Cuba on an American passport during professional trips permitted under the previous administration’s relaxed travel restrictions.

Carr worries that under Trump’s reshaped foreign policy, his trips to Cuba may land him on a no-fly list or even in a cell.

(Sidebar: whatever you say, blowhard!)


Universities were once places of thought and discussion.

With guys like this yahoo, universities have been reduced to places where rabbles puff out their chests and pretend to be important.




When the only thing one thinks is: "Cool blue berets!", one might not want to commit to a military mission:

Like every NATO member, Canada has committed to spend two per cent of GDP on defence. We currently spend less than half that. It is unlikely, to say the least, that Canada will spend the extra $20 billion per year it would cost to make the two per cent target, but that is no reason to not work harder to find ways and budgetary room to invest in a larger, more capable Canadian military. If it takes the White House prodding Canada to bring this about, so be it.

And in the meantime, Canada at least needs to be smart about using what military forces it has. A peacekeeping mission to Africa simply is not a priority given our limited means and the current international situation, even if the federals Liberals had badly wanted one as a way to ingratiate themselves to the United Nations. Canada is already reinforcing our allies in Europe, tensions are rising in the Pacific, and Canada remains a part of the anti-ISIL coalition active in Iraq. A 600-man deployment to Africa is a luxury at the best of times, and these are certainly not that.

No one in Trudeau's government is willing to beef up the armed forces and make them formidable.

The armed forces have become another prop for an opaque banana republic.




Premier Kathleen Wynne will get back into office because of Ontario. A province whose political fortunes are swayed by powerful teachers' and workers' unions doesn't experience a political sea change until either one of those unions gets mad:

Premier Kathleen Wynne’s veto of road tolls for the City of Toronto on Friday clearly establishes one thing.

She’s not going down in next year’s provincial election without a fight and without pulling out all the stops to win.

It could work.

Wynne’s eleventh hour attempt to transform herself into a populist premier through such measures as vetoing Toronto’s bid for road tolls and removing the 8% provincial portion of the HST from hydro bills, is a stretch given her political career.

After all, she entered politics as a spendthrift Toronto school trustee, who helped lead the charge against then Conservative premier Mike Harris’ attempts to force that board to bring in a balanced budget.

Wynne started out as premier telling Ontarians she wanted to have the difficult “conversation” with them about raising new “revenue tools” — including possible road tolls — to pay for public transit and roads.

That’s why her 180-degree reversal, vetoing tolls for the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway requested by Mayor John Tory and Toronto council, was so hypocritical, especially given her government’s previous statements about respecting municipal autonomy.

Now Wynne says she’s heard the cries of Ontarians about their rising cost of living and wants to help them.

But she was deaf to those appeals for years as Ontarians complained about skyrocketing electricity rates brought about by Liberal government decisions and, more recently, her cap-and-trade scheme, which started raising the price of almost everything on Jan. 1.

Still, the public can be forgiving of political hypocrisy.

(Sidebar: because of idiocy.)


Also:

Several generating plants will be paid as they sit idle for up to a year or more because that’s a money-saving move in the province’s screwy electricity system.

PC MPP Vic Fedeli, who represents the North Bay area where one plant is located, said as many as 100 jobs could be lost in the province, while the Ontario government announces it’s buying more Quebec hydro power.

“I stated that very day that this will cost Ontario jobs in the non-utility generators (NUGs)... and that’s precisely what’s happened,” Fedeli said Wednesday.

Energy advisor Tom Adams calls this “long-term paid holiday” courtesy of Ontario hydro customers a symptom of a diseased system that’s bringing on new power generation while struggling with an excess of electricity supply.

“They’re still approving the construction of mostly wind and solar,” Adams said. “A lot of these wind turbines were getting installed in the north right beside paper mills that were shutting down.

“Screwed up? Let me count the ways. This just goes on and on and on,” he said.

 
And now, perhaps students aren't studying enough:

While a student wrote of one of his peers: 'A girl in my honors science class asked the teacher, and was 100% serious, if ramen grew on ramen trees.'

Geography proved a stumbling block for others. 

'A classmate of mine asked if Asia was a town in China, and, assuming that she was right, said that it was crazy that so many people from our school came from one town,' one user shared.

(paws up)

But Wait! There's More!

Everyone is freaking out over Trump's immigration ban:

The administration had serious concerns about abuses in immigration programs and needed to impose a ban while it comes up with new vetting procedures, according to a White House official who asked not to be identified because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The official also addressed the priority it plans to give to Christians. “What is happening to Christians in the Middle East is genocide,” the official said. “Theres a difference between having an exclusion than making sure a specific group is not excluded.”

A federal law enforcement official who confirmed the temporary ban said there was an exemption for foreigners whose entry is in the U.S. national interest. It was not immediately clear how that exemption might be applied.

Some people forget that the president can actually do this.

Furthermore, it is not as stringent as people think. The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) is suspended for only 120 days. This is to add or streamline vetting procedures. After this, the USRAP will proceed as it normally would save the added procedures. Also added to this process, more interviews with migrants save those for whom an interview is not required by statutes.

In short, everything is at a stand-still until the Americans can figure out who people are, where they are coming from and if they are going to cause trouble.

Something that should have been done before. 

Not to fear. PM Hair-Boy will pick up the unvetted slack and add to the already-expensive migrant rolls:

They announced the move as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said they would take in refugees refused by the United States.

He tweeted on Saturday: 'To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength.'

To remind one, this is the country Trudeau most admires:

“Is there any female defector who had registered their marital status in China?” said Yoon Yeo Sang, a co-founder of the Seoul-based nonprofit Database Center for North Korean Human Rights. “For China, they were the ones who were supposed to be repatriated, and I wonder if China would accept their common-law marital status and take necessary legal steps.”

China’s foreign ministry did not reply to questions about whether it would help the women. The defectors say they deserve international attention because their plight was primarily caused by the North’s abysmal rights conditions and by China’s policy of repatriating North Korean defectors who are caught hiding in the country.

**

His refusal to call FGM and honour-killings barbaric:

Liberal MP Justin Trudeau said the government should not call honour killings "barbaric" in a study guide for would-be Canadian citizens. ...

Trudeau blasted the Conservatives for using the term "barbaric," even though it's been in the guide since 2009. Forced marriages are the only new item on the list. 

"There's nothing that the word 'barbaric' achieves that the words 'absolutely unacceptable' would not have achieved," Trudeau, the Liberal immigration critic, said.

**
 
His response to Yazidi children fleeing from ISIS:

Trudeau, who opposes Canada's part in airstrikes on Islamic States targets in Iraq, says we'd be more helpful offering “cold winter” advice for victims of the militants.

“There's a lot of people, refugees, displaced peoples, fleeing violence who are facing a very, very cold winter in the mountains. Something Canada has expertise on is how to face a winter in the mountains with the right kind of equipment," Trudeau said.

**

His anger at prioritising Yazidis and Iraqi Christians as refugees:

(Sidebar: he followed the example of a previous prime minister and would not learn from it.)

**

How the Liberal government had to be shamed into acting:

On October 25th the Liberals finally agreed to a Conservative motion to help Yazidis flee sex slavery and extermination with a plan to be in place within 120 days.

So far, only a handful of Yazidi refugees have arrived in Canada due to the efforts of private groups.


It can't be said enough: Trudeau is a piece of sh--.



Also:

For eight years Obama stalled on the “No” he knew he was going to give Keystone. Trump gave a go-ahead on his fourth day in office. He accompanied it with a pledge to purge the institutionalized procrastination that have become the essence of all such “assessment reviews.” 

His quick decision puts Trudeau on the spot. The Prime Minister who so recently emoted “We can’t phase out the oil sands tomorrow” did offer a tepid approval of Trump’s move. But there was no real joy in his assent. I wonder, in fact, if he really welcomes it. His supporters, those he courts most zealously in the halls of high environmentalism, certainly do not.

Back to snow-boarding, Hair-Boy.





Ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law, as they say:

An investigation has found that councillors in a Nova Scotia municipality who expensed money spent on a Liberal fundraiser were unaware that it breached the Elections Act.

The Richmond County councillors each paid $50 for a May 2014 fundraiser attended by Premier Stephen McNeil and Energy Minister Michel Samson, and were illegally reimbursed by the municipality.

In a report Friday, Elections Nova Scotia said it has entered into “compliance agreements” with six councillors, the chief administrative officer and the warden to follow the act in future.

Not that I believe that they were ignorant. They just didn't care.





Well, what is wrong with what he said? You can't give a carte blanche to people to over-hunt because they were here first or some such thing and then hope that the offending hunters are now law-abiding:

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister is being criticized for saying young indigenous men with criminal records are responsible for night hunting which he previously said was fuelling a “race war.”

“Young indigenous men — a preponderance of them are offenders, with criminal records — are going off shooting guns in the middle of the night,” Maclean’s magazine quotes Pallister as saying from his vacation home in Costa Rica.

“It doesn’t make sense.”

His comments came after a speech he made last week in which he said tension surrounding night hunting is leading to a “race war.”

“Young indigenous guys going out and shootin’ a bunch of moose ’cause they can, ’cause they say it’s their right, doesn’t make any sense to me,” he said in the speech.

“This is a poor practice. A dumb practice … It should stop.

“So what are we doing? We’re organizing to bring indigenous people together and say the same thing I just said to ya, ’cause it’s becoming a race war and I don’t want that.”

The Opposition is demanding Pallister apologize for his latest comments and commit to educating himself about First Nations.

Oh, dear. What a surprise:

An ex-KGB chief suspected of helping the former MI6 spy Christopher Steele to compile his dossier on Donald Trump may have been murdered by the Kremlin and his death covered up.

Oleg Erovinkin, a former general in the KGB and its successor the FSB, was found dead in the back of his car in Moscow on Boxing Day in mysterious circumstances.

Erovinkin was a key aide to Igor Sechin, a former deputy prime minister and now head of Rosneft, the state-owned oil company, who is repeatedly named in the dossier.

Erovinkin has been described as a key liaison between Sechin and Russian president Vladimir Putin.

But people insisted that there would be no slippery slope:

A Dutch woman doctor who drugged an elderly woman and then asked her family to hold her down as she fought desperately not to be killed did not break the law, according to medical experts citing the country's euthanasia legislation.

The shocking case was referred to the so-called Regional Review Committee in the Netherlands which admitted that while the case involved some irregularities that merited a reprimand, the female doctor had effectively acted in good faith.

And now, things you might not know about the Chinese New Year:

Cherries are such a popular food during the Festival that suppliers need to go to extremes in order to meet demand: Singapore Airlines recently flew four chartered jets to South East and North Asian areas. More than 300 tons are being delivered in time for the festivities.

(Merci beaucoup)

Saturday Post

A merry Year of the Rooster to all y'all.

During the 2015 federal elections, Justin Trudeau promised three deficits, that is, three periods of debt. People heard this and voted for him anyway:

The federal government ran a deficit of $12.7 billion over the first eight months of its 2016-17 fiscal year — compared with a $1-billion surplus during the same period a year earlier.

The shortfall was due to a $14-billion surge in expenses, including a $7.1-billion increase in direct program costs to the treasury, the Finance Department latest monthly fiscal monitor showed Friday.

The double-digit deficit figure wasn't a surprise since the Trudeau government has pledged to run deficits over the coming years as it tries to boost the economy through infrastructure investments and larger child benefits.

I will say again: Thirty-nine percent of Canadians, after having heard that Trudeau wanted to run three periods of financial debt, voted for him despite this and are now $12.7 billion CDN in the hole.

Do not take sides but watch as train wreck that is Ontario unfolds:

At a quintessential Friday morning press conference at a bus terminal in Richmond Hill, Premier Kathleen Wynne announced she had spinelessly caved to her cabinet and caucus and reneged on a pledge to allow Toronto to toll the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway, for fear that her hot shambles of a government might lose votes among commuters in the 2018 election.

Sorry, I mean she announced she’s a really excellent listener: “Any leader who doesn’t listen to those voices, doesn’t listen to the team, … isn’t actually leading.”

Sorry again, I mean she announced tolls weren’t appropriate because she had suddenly realized — since last month, when she said she would approve them — that there aren’t enough alternatives for commuters. “Part of the fairness of decisions that we make has to be that people have choices. It has to be that whatever we do is more affordable, not less affordable for people,” she said.

I’m just going to pause here to note that the maximum toll anyone has thus far proposed, $5.20 a trip, is about twice as “affordable” as a GO train ride from Burlington to Union Station.

Oh hell, sorry a third time. I’m such a Douglas Downer. Wynne had good news! Beginning in 2019, Ontario municipalities will get a bigger share of the gas tax, doubling from two cents to four by 2022. 

That would likely net Toronto about $175 million annually — “the same money” as tolls would have brought in, Wynne said, to fund Toronto’s giant list of much-needed transit and transportation projects.

Ontario is financially ruined. It doesn't help that people continually vote for the very government that mismanages their money.




As long PM Hair-Boy can get money from the Chinese, there will be no cessation of pay-for-play and anyone who believes that one can make that nauseating man-child see reason is out of their g-d- minds:

The Trudeau government’s new rules to expose — but not eliminate — so-called cash-for-access fundraisers are a smokescreen to cover their ethical missteps, Conservatives say.

Trump meets with British Prime Minister Theresa May:

President Donald Trump on Friday pledged America’s “lasting support” to the U.S.’ historic “special relationship” with Britain after he emerged from his first meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May, leader of an ally who seeks to nudge the populist president toward the political mainstream.

May, who said the meeting was the start to building their relationship, announced that Trump had accepted an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II for a state visit later this year with his wife, first lady Melania Trump.

North Korea is re-starting its plutonium reactor:

Fresh satellite imagery shows that North Korea has apparently restarted its plutonium-producing nuclear reactor, a U.S. website monitoring the communist nation said Friday.

"Imagery from January 22 shows a water plume (most probably warm) originating from the cooling water outlet of the reactor, an indication that the reactor is very likely operating," the website 38 North said in a report.

"Currently, most of the river is frozen over except where this water mixes with the river. Currents carry this mix downstream — visible as a plume of ice-free water. Without being able to measure the water temperature rise or water flow from the reactor, it is impossible to estimate at what power level the reactor is running, although it may be considerable," it said.

Also:

Thae Yong-ho, the former North Korean deputy ambassador to the U.K. who defected last year, will visit the U.S. in February to meet with officials and experts, the Asahi Shimbun reported Wednesday.

Thae decided to visit the U.S. right after the Donald Trump administration's inauguration to call for strong sanctions against the North Korean regime.

He is also expected to meet U.S. journalists, the daily added.

Since he arrived in Seoul, Thae has consistently expressed his wish to engage in public activities for the democratization of the North.

American vice-president Mike Pence attended a march that did not include crazy people:

 

Thousands of abortion opponents gathered in cold, blustery weather near the Washington Monument Friday and heard Vice President Mike Pence tell the annual March for Life that the Trump administration is determined to advance the fight against abortion.

“We will not grow weary,” he said in a ten-minute addresss to the assembled throng. “We will not rest, until we restore a culture of life in America for ourselves and our posterity,”

He said the administration is bent on ending tax-payer funding of abortion and abortion providers.

 

Also:

 

Elizabeth Poe, the owner of the Joy of Knitting in Franklin, Tenn. — located just outside Nashville — is not here for your pink pussy hats.

On Tuesday, Poe posted on the shop’s Facebook page that following this past weekend’s Women’s March on Washington, D.C., she would prefer that participants and supporters of the protest and its efforts not patronize her shop.

“The vulgarity, vile and evilness of this movement is absolutely despicable. That kind of behavior is unacceptable and is not welcomed at The Joy of Knitting. I will never need that kind of business to remain open,” Poe writes. “As the owner of this business and a Christian, I have a duty to my customers and my community to promote values of mutual respect, love, compassion, understanding, and integrity. The women’s movement is counterproductive to unity of family, friends, community, and nation.”

 

The tantrum-throwers did not like.

Never mind how much in debt Canada is (reminder: people voted for it). Let's fund abortion in brown people countries because Trudeau doesn't like Trump:

Canada’s Liberal government is considering joining the Dutch government’s proposed international abortion fund, as part of its commitment to advance “reproductive rights.”

After President Trump restored the Mexico City Policy on Monday, Dutch minister of foreign trade and development co-operation Lilianne Ploumen announced her government’s intention to launch the abortion fund.

Oh, snap, girl!

Kellyanne Conway’s color-block red, white, and blue Gucci coat was one of the standout looks at President Trump’s inauguration. And the piece, created by an Italian fashion house from a design “inspired by the city of London,” prompted a deluge of memes and clever quips from the Twitterati and other assorted jokers on social media.

But Conway has a few words for the folks who weren’t feeling her ’fit. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, the Trump adviser offered her thoughts on the reaction, saying she’s “sorry to offend the black-stretch-pants women of America with a little color.”

Pphhhhpphhh! No. That would involve reading it:

Nineteen Eighty-Four is often called a “warning,” but it is not a book about the path to totalitarianism; after all, it features no noisy public opposition marching in the streets against the regime. (It’s important to notice that the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four is not really policed by the police.) Orwell did write that book, and it was called Animal Farm. The polite left is perhaps still not totally comfortable with that one, perhaps remembering that its forefathers, acting on the most honourable patriotic motives, tried their hardest to suppress it. ...

The regime in Nineteen Eighty-Four is very specifically a socialist one, armed with new mass media whose possible abuses Orwell dreaded; it was written after fascism in Europe had been trounced. Austere, Labour-led postwar Britain is an important target of Orwell’s satire on “Ingsoc” (HINT HINT), although this is hard even for a fairly aware reader to see from the vantage point of 2017. Orwell had written war propaganda for the BBC: his “telescreens” are at least as much as a semi-private, self-aware joke about contemporary Britain as they are a science-fiction vision.

There must be more suitable weapons with which to arm the public against President Trump. This is not to deny that he does show an outrageous disregard for inconvenient facts, that he will try to build his personal cult, or that he will abuse history. But he will be, in all of this, contradicted and resisted within the U.S. by a civil society and cultural apparatus that remain independent of the state, and even in undisputed control of large parts of it. When a politician lies and misdirects, we ought to object. But one man, even a president, is limited in the harm he can do in a constitutional republic.

If the ovine masses actually understood that 1984 was about communist totalitarianism, they might just collapse in shock.




Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. John Hurt:

For a Thursday

A merry Australia Day to all y'all.

I bet he wishes he went to Davos now:

A growing number of First Nations leaders are blasting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for comments he made during a town hall meeting in Saskatoon on Wednesday.

"He basically said chiefs do not know what the needs of First Nations are," said Muskowekwan First Nation Chief Reginald Bellerose.

"I thought that was disrespectful and he should learn to use his words more carefully."

Why go abroad when he can radicalise people domestically?

An Ottawa man who had been talking about joining ISIL signed a terrorism peace bond on Thursday that requires him to wear a GPS ankle bracelet and not view online terrorist propaganda.

Tevis Gonyou-McLean, 25, became the latest Canadian subject to a terrorism peace bond, which police have been using against those they believe have become supporters of ISIL or groups with a similar ideology.

Wow. The authorities certainly know how to deal with guys like him.





Oh, this will go down well:

The White House on Thursday floated the idea of imposing a 20 percent tax on goods from Mexico to pay for a wall at the southern U.S. border, sending the peso plummeting and deepening a crisis between the two neighbors.

Obama's last-minute cash offer to the Palestinians has been frozen by Trump:

The Trump administration has informed the Palestinian Authority that it is freezing the transfer of $221 million which was quietly authorized by the Obama administration in its final hours on January 20...

Somewhere, a has-been president is grinding his teeth.





After killing the TPP, Trump will attempt a new trade with Japan, a deal that might be better and tailored for individual countries:

U.S. President Donald Trump will seek quick progress toward a bilateral trade agreement with Japan in place of a broader Asia-Pacific deal he abandoned this week, when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits the White House next month, an official in the Trump administration said on Thursday.

New defense chief James Mattis will travel to Japan and South Korea in February:

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis plans to visit Japan and South Korea next week in a demonstration of Asia’s importance to the administration of President Donald Trump, officials from the two allies said Tuesday.

Mattis is expected to be the first Cabinet member of the Trump administration to visit Japan since the Republican’s inauguration Friday.

The Pentagon chief plans to meet with Defense Minister Tomomi Inada on Feb. 3 after paying a courtesy call on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe the previous day, according to the officials.

Mattis and Inada are likely to reaffirm the importance of maintaining the robust alliance between Tokyo and Washington and affirm that U.S. engagement is vital in ensuring stability in the region.

Mattis may request that Japan increase defense spending and expand the role of the Self-Defense Forces abroad in line with his call on U.S. allies this month to “carry their fair share of any kind of defense burden.”

During the presidential campaign, Trump demanded that Japan, South Korea and other U.S. allies cover a greater share of the costs associated with stationing U.S. forces in their countries — or else defend themselves. Japan, however, regards its nearly 75 percent contribution as sufficient.

Mattis and Inada are expected to exchange views on China’s island construction and military buildup in disputed areas in the South China Sea and North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

As in Japan, both Koreas have had their experience with Christianity, a foreign religion that many embraced and would ultimately die for.

In North Korea, being a Christian can have one killed. Yet it may be a factor for change:

Thae said many interesting things, but none was so striking as the point when, about 9 minutes into the interview, he talked about the good fortune of getting his family to South Korea and said, “God help[ed] me.” Thae did not strike me as an emotional or spiritual man. He has spent his whole life shielded from religion. We know that his political conversion was a gradual one; therefore, it’s improbable that he has undergone a sudden religious conversion since his recent defection. His religious views will probably evolve, just as his political views evolved. …

If the validation Christians feel from Thae’s mention of God is that even the most persecuted people feel, and hunger for a connection with, God’s presence, I can acknowledge that they may have a point without necessarily adopting their spiritual views. We know that many North Korean refugees have become committed Christians. Surely there are multiple explanations for this. Initially, North Koreans contact Christianity because it’s usually only Christians who (at great individual risk, but in the collective interest of the church and humanity itself) care enough to help them. Perhaps they continue to attend church out of a sense of gratitude, or because it helps to meet their material needs. They may become believers because the church gives them a sense or community, or fills the spiritual void left by the false god they’ve rejected. Thae, however, didn’t rely on missionaries to feed him or smuggle him through China, and the South Korean government has obviously welcomed him with open arms. He doesn’t need a church to be his support network. His comment suggests that appeal of religion to North Koreans transcends songbun, and that one cannot explain its appeal in solely material terms.

People who have survived totalitarian regimes often have a thirst for the spiritual. Having been deprived of everything including belief, religious faith acts as firm land on which they can tread without fear or uncertainty.



(Kamsahamnida)